To efficiently deliver broadcast iTV in a network of users, Internet Protocol (IP) multicast can be used. Multicast provides substantially better bandwidth efficiencies over unicast delivery. For national channels the iTV streams can be sent to local markets, independent of whether there are currently viewers in each local market for a particular channel. This is done to improve channel change time latency. To accomplish this, static joins can be created on every edge delivery router in the network across all local markets. Hundreds of channels have been made available by iTV service providers and additional channels numbering in the thousands are expected in the near future. The increase in channels is not just due to new content, but also due to variations for given content that can include channels for both standard definition resolution as well as high definition resolution. “Picture in Picture” resolution can be yet another “channel” stream. Multiple camera angles for sporting events can also add channel streams.
As more channels are added to the iTV network, the state information grows. When nodes are added to the iTV network or maintenance is performed on new nodes or links or when there are node or link failures, the time to reroute the multicast traffic depends on an amount of multicast routing states present in the network. Furthermore, pre-positioning multicast states in every local market edge router can require configuring static multicast joins in every one of the local market edge routers.